The Silhouettes

To most listeners, the Silhouettes are another one of rock & roll's one-hit wonders, another of those R&B harmony vocal groups that scored big once (with "Get a Job") and never repeated that trip up the charts. And that is true -- they never scored a second nationally charting single. But they did carry on a lot longer than most people think, continuing to perform and even record right to the end of the 1960s, with at least two of the group's four original members present at any time. Additionally, the impact of "Get a Job," a song that was written by group member Rick Lewis (and credited to all four Silhouettes), is astonishing to contemplate as a popular culture flash point. It became, for many listeners, the quintessential doo wop song -- or, at least, one of a handful of songs thought of automatically when the musical term is mentioned (although some purists also loathed the song for its seeming burlesque of doo wop's attributes). More than that, it inspired good work and imitation in others; the Miracles were one of several groups that delivered "answer songs" to "Get a Job." In this case, their debut single "Got a Job" took up a positive message in contrast to "Get a Job"'s whiny tone. That positive message, in turn, helped to define and distinguish the Miracles and Motown Records from most of their competition for years to come. Some 11 years after that, in the midst of the Vietnam War and the Woodstock era, a group of young enthusiasts for old-time rock & roll, looking for a name to call their outfit, went back to an old song, "Get a Job," and its backing chorus, and ended up called themselves "Sha Na Na." The Silhouettes' history went back five years earlier than "Get a Job," to the early '50s, when Earl Beal (born July 18, 1924) and Raymond Edwards (born...